phoebus
by haliburton
Summary: zukorolo He laughed a little and looked to Zuko, stating the obvious "he's eating!" before carefully stroking the bird with one finger.


Rolo was unsure as to ihow/i Zuko found out. Who had told him? Did brother? Millay? There was no other way Zuko would have known that only days after the confession, after their first date, that it was his own birthday. There was no slip-up on his own behalf that he was aging one more year (what year he was, he himself couldn't quite say, but he had guessed sixteen) or that he longed to tell him, wanted to spend it with him.

Instead, he was being given the treatment. There was a small gift, wrapped as neatly as Zuko could wrap it. Rolo's eyes widened as he stepped forward cautiously, tilting his head with questions on his tongue.

"Who told you?"

"That doesn't matter. Here, take it. Unless you don't want it already --"

"No, I do! Thank you... i-it means a lot to me," Rolo replied, happily retrieving the gift. It was a bit heavy, and he wanted to shake the box, but ended up not doing so. Instead, he opened it on the spot, carefully undoing the wrapping (it was habit, he said, ignoring the laugh he got) and opening the box itself. It didn't quite click why there was the bag of bird feed before Zuko held up the cage with a sun conure, wings fluttering. He didn't realize he did not notice the sound before -- perhaps he was too caught up in the box offered to him the second he answered the door, or too caught up just by the fact Zuko was at his front door without calling first. His eyes lit up on the spot, looking from Zuko to the bird. "Please, bring him in."

"I'm not invited?"

"No, you are," he stated, taking the bird feed still inside the box inside as Zuko took the birdcage, moving to carefully set it down on the coffeetable, plopping on the sofa as Rolo followed in his footsteps. "I can't thank you enough. I've always loved birds, always wanted one after I first saw a bird."

"When did you first see one?"

"Hmm... when I was very young. I don't know what age," he let his fingers slide against the birdcage, resting on the "door" to open it, "but I remember searching for someone. I remember... it was sunny, and when I fired a shot, a flock of birds were stirred. I remember watching them, and there was one tiny, slow bird who wanted to keep up. Back then, I didn't really think much of it, but I remembered dwelling on the animals for a long time, with uncertainty as to why that was."

He laughed sheepishly, withdrawing his hand before looking over at Zuko with a smile. "I guess I just wanted to be like them. To have the ability to fly away."

"I hope you don't want to fly away from me," Zuko stated, quirky grin following his words. Rolo took him seriously, as he did usually, getting the hair ruffle he got when he was found to be "gullible". He was flustered, as he was when he was caught, looking away before getting an arm wrapped around him. Laughter had died down, and Rolo fidgeted slightly, hearing the bird move around. He was about to get up and put the bird food in his cage before catching himself, resting a hand over Zuko's arm that was draped around him.

"Thank you, again," he murmured, caressing the arm before easing out of the embrace, making note that he'd have to get some sort of stand to place the birdcage on before opening the bag, taking a bit of the feed in his hand before opening the cage. The bird flew out, but went to his hand immediately, eating straight out of it. Rolo's expression turned into that only a kid would wear, bright and gleeful, as if his past didn't matter in that moment. He laughed a little and looked to Zuko, stating the obvious "he's eating!" before carefully stroking the bird with one finger.

"He needs a name, don't you think?" Zuko asked, leaning back and watching Rolo bond with the bird, smiling a little to himself as he thought of names. Of course, all he really knew were the names from his home world. "Ursa" wouldn't exactly fit the bird, nor would "Xin". He sighed, coming up with nothing, before Rolo could contribute.

"Phoebus. It's the byname for the sun god. He's a sun conure, after all. It's only fitting."

"He's your pet," Zuko shrugged, watching Rolo almost-hesitantly put Phoebus back into his cage. He took the opportunity to wrap both his arms around him, pulling him in against himself. "Happy Birthday. I know they're very important to you, so I thought I'd make it a little special."

"You succeeded," Rolo whispered, closing his eyes while resting against Zuko. Eventually he would pull away; but until then, he stayed put, listening wings flutter as he relaxed with Zuko.


End file.
